AmigaOS 3.2(hyperion-entertainment.com) |
AmigaOS 3.2(hyperion-entertainment.com) |
So, https://honeypot.net/post/the-amiga-alternative-audio-page/ is still a thing, but please don't ask me to update any of that software. I wouldn't know how to anymore if I wanted to.
Play by play updates on their Twitter at https://mobile.twitter.com/amigadocuments
That's a semi-serious question; the "Amiga Documents" site linked in the post you're replying to seems to cast Hyperion as the (relative?) villains and Cloanto as the (relative?) good guys, but it seems if you want a version of AmigaOS released this century, that means Hyperion.
But from that summary Hyperion Entertainment does not look that great and seems like it's the reason why AmigaOS did not became open source.
Also, is there any financial value left in that IP? From an outside perspective it looks like people fighting over table scraps.
The financial value of the AmigaOS is nil. Zero. Nothing. At best you could maybe sell copies to enthusiasts, but even tens of thousands of sales wouldn't be enough to hire even a single full-time developer unless you priced it way too high. This would be a poster child for relicensing as Free Software if it weren't for the fact that the OS was tied up in litigation and license double-dealing.
TBH, is the way pretty much all proprietary software dies. Companies holding onto their software through bankruptcy are legally obligated to sell it to whoever will recoup the most money for creditors; but usually their software is already outdated or unusable. So it will almost always get sold to sketchy companies or wind up sitting in some bank's junk assets portfolio for the end of time. Even if that wasn't the case, most proprietary software is actually very much not legally Freeable, because it has other non-Free dependencies. Occasionally, you get an outright miracle like Blender, where the whole app is owned by one bankrupt company and you can crowdsource enough capital to pay off creditors.
(Examples of other abandoned software whose owners' hands are tied would include things like Adobe Flash Player or IBM OS/2.)
I'm puzzled though, because I heard there was Amiga OS 3.5, 3.9, 4.0, 4.1, 4.2.
How come now it's 3.2?
The surface of the AmigaOS is tiny in comparison with any modern system. It’s surprising nobody took a free RTOS and built an Amiga API on top of it, enough to fool Amiga software into being compiled for modern hardware and run directly on real Amigas.
When trying to remember its name I also found Apollo OS[2].
[1] https://amigang.com/software-aros/
[2] http://www.apollo-computer.com/apollOS.html
Edit: Looks, like Apollo OS is a fork of AROS that is optimized to run on the original Amiga hardware.
Kickstart 1.0 - 3.1: By Commodore. Actually 3.0 was "officially" last but 3.1 was ongoing work that got wrapped up well enough. I don't really remember if Commodore officially released 3.1 or if it was picked up from their corpse by someone.
HAAGE & PARTNER BRANCH:
AmigaOS 3.5-3.9: First post-3.1 versions from 1999-2000 (for Motorola 68020 and up rather than 68000 and up) by Haage & Partner. Main features a TCP/IP stack and a new GUI, a new GUI toolkit called ReAction, MPEG movie player, MP3 player, >4 GB disk partitioning support.
HYPERION POWER PC BRANCH:
AmigaOS 4.0-4.1: First PowerPC-only version. Main features memory virtualization, new GUI, integrated third-party graphics driver support, etc.
HYPERION "CLASSIC" BRANCH:
Now they returned to 3.1 BUT with 3.9 source code still on their hands. Trying to advance Kickstart from a new angle that allows support for all Amigas, even the 68000 (Amiga 500). This is NOT for PowerPC. AmigaOS 4 is for those systems but since that's basically a dead end in 2021, this is a more pragmatic move. I also find less "careless" and more conservative than 3.5+, focusing on kernel improvements rather than bolting on big third party tools and libraries. Basically more how I'd expect actual Commodore releases would look like.
AmigaOS 3.1.4: Backporting numerous features and lessons learnt from 3.9 and now available for all Amigas, that is including the MC68000. An important update for classic Amigas since it brings in particular support that makes interacting with modern hardware easier with larger hard drives, and I think it added MC68060 support too for accelerators and whatnot.
AmigaOS 3.2: A continuation of the 3.1.4 branch and now probably surpassing 3.9 in many areas.
AmigaOS 3.x...?
Why would someone release of a modern version of an Amiga operating system for sale on CDROM?
Who would use this?
What I get from using those machines is feeling rich. I can look at my phone or a raspberry pi and say: Wow!!, that has millions of times more memory!
You also get the essence. With such a limited power they made programs that were useful and games that were funny. Now you have Unity or Unreal Engines powering games that are not fun or electron apps consuming gigabytes of memory that are not useful because the basics are wrong.
I use old Autocad for DOS with Autolisp support and you realize after all this time, the thing is useful.
My job is creating software so reminding what the basics are is always important.
It's quite amazing, I can highly recommend checking them out: https://github.com/MiSTer-devel/Main_MiSTer/wiki
How do you even hire for that position? What tools do the AmigaOS team use?
I love that this is still worked on, and I'd love to know more about what that job is like.
Then a month ago in 2021 I booted it up again to see if it still worked after a further 13 years of disuse - and it did again.
Played Zool both times!
(I am not an Amiga user, but I'd love to get one in the future when I have more space, time, and money.)
They were well-built, and the most sold models (A500, A600, A1200) do not have the barrel batteries that leak and destroy PCBs.
A500+, A2000/3000/4000 have these batteries, but they weren't anywhere as popular as the other models.
If you own any of these, ensure you've removed the barrel battery (cutting it out with pliers is good enough, and the Amiga will still work).
I personally have 2xA500, 1xA500+, 1xA600, 1xA1200, all working.
I tend to have one running at all times. It's the A1200 right now.
They were build just a tad better than contemporary Atari ST from the point of signal integrity, but Commodore manufacturing plant was a shit show. Multiple models shipped with capacitors mounted in reverse polarity (1200, 4000, CD32).
Not to mention the emulators out there. It seems everyone wants at least Amiga via emulation, just won't emulate PowerPC Amigas.
I have test equipment that’s 50 years old in active service so I suppose the mantra of “if it works and makes you happy, use it” is still valid.
Powered it up a few years ago and it worked fine.
Edit: I just realized that what I really want is an easy way to launch a single Amiga app in a window on my Mac. Double-click an icon and have The Bard's Tale up and running? Yes please.
i.e. If you care about it, better keep it close to you.
Nobody.
>Seems to cast Hyperion as the (relative?) villains and Cloanto as the (relative?) good guys
They're both spending all their cash fighting each other. I support neither.
>but it seems if you want a version of AmigaOS released this century, that means Hyperion.
Support AROS. Copy AmigaOS, don't support it. That is the conclusion I arrived to.
This is one way of many possible: https://www.power2people.org/projects/overview/
That's a weird comment to make on the day Hyperion ships a second significant update to AmigaOS in 3 years, while Cloanto has been sitting on its IP to sell a glorified, Windows-only UAE bundle with no improvements whatsoever.
I don't have an opinion on the legal fight, but as user I can see who's actually moving things forward, and that's where I'm putting my money.
Cloanto was trying to open source it (which is probably the best thing for such base) but Hyperion blocked that effort.
Hyperion also doesn't hire any developers.
(Edit: I see that Cloanto does have a somewhat cryptic page for macOS, but the way I read it, Macs can only run the open source UAE that I gather Amiga Forever is built on top of. So https://fs-uae.net might be a better place to investigate.)